The question

How do you speak without notes?

By being confident and by rehearsing lots, basically. Amazing as it may seem to us mortals, David Cameron's 50-minute performance sans script at the Conservative party conference earlier this month, and Nick Clegg's all but note-free feat when announcing his Lib Dem leadership bid in Sheffield last week, could be emulated by almost anyone.

"It's interesting because it goes a step beyond the autocue," says Max Atkinson, one of Britain's leading public speaking coaches and author of Lend Me Your Ears, a key work on the subject. "The autocue allows the speaker to simulate continuous eye contact, but it has become a bit obvious. Speaking without notes goes further; the audience will feel you're speaking from the heart, which is what you want. In any event, it's raising the bar."

So how do they do it? Atkinson argues there is a "language of public speaking", which is very different to everyday spoken and written language. "These rhetorical devices - the contrast, the puzzle, the simple metaphor, the three-point list - worked in pre-literate, storytelling cultures," he says, "and they work now. Even in the TV age, when politicians need to be chatty, not declamatory, if you don't use rhetoric you will not be effective." Crucially, Atkinson says, rhetoric not only ups the impact of a speech but makes it easier to memorise.

So if you have a strong speech and are a fluent, fearless communicator, "it wouldn't be too difficult" after a few rehearsals to deliver it without a prompt, Atkinson reckons. (Some, though, may have stronger speeches - or more courage - than others: Cameron barely used even a cue-card; Clegg, judging from a photo on his website, had his entire speech sitting on a lectern to his left. Just in case.)